


Growing Pains

by Emptian



Series: Sole Survivor: Nora Mulyer [3]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Action/Adventure, Automatron DLC, F/M, Growing Up, Post-Canon, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:35:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26728294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emptian/pseuds/Emptian
Summary: Whether it's robots, raiders, or a Vault full of crazy surprises, something always seems intent on bringing the Commonwealth full of dangers. With the Institute gone and the Commonwealth on the road to recovery, Nora Mulyer-Maxson finds herself getting accustomed to a whole new life. The hope that raising her son under the Brotherhood's thumb would be her biggest problem soon gets circumvented by the emergence of new threats to the Commonwealth.
Relationships: Ada & Female Sole Survivor, Arthur Maxson/Female Sole Survivor, Synth Shaun & Female Sole Survivor
Series: Sole Survivor: Nora Mulyer [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1879093
Comments: 14
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one is gonna take a while to write due to ongoing things in life. Nothing bad, just don't expect frequent updates.
> 
> Still, I wanted to post the story's continuation as it slowly gets written. There's a few things that never happened in Everything After that deserved more exploration, and one extra facet of our story that I never got a chance to tell in the first fic.

### GOOD CAN’T LAST FOREVER

**Monophobia: an irrational fear of being alone.**

* * *

If a Vault Suit could be designed by a company who actually meant for them to be useful, the Utility Vault Suit would have been the end result. Touted by Vault-Tec as a specialized Vault Suit for more dangerous Vault professions, it didn’t see much use within the domestic sections of any functional Vault because it wasn’t designed for such a thing.

If you worked with the Vault’s sewage systems, with its power plant, or went out into the world for the Vault on a dedicated scavenging mission, _then_ you got the Utility Suit. Even then, Proctor Teagan complained that the Utility Suit wasn’t up to the Brotherhood’s standards for armor. For a normal soldier, he would have recommended adding some combat armor and insulating the lining. For Nora Maxson, he went all out, adding insulation, ballistic lining, and a few steel plates between the different layers. If ever there was a work to rival Arthur Maxson’s battlecoat, this Vault Suit was it. Proctor Teagan had gotten help from his favorite squire, who had a knack for weapons and armor modifications and snuck some extra lining in from his trips back and forth to the Castle.

The finishing touches involved black dye, meant more to disguise blood and dirt from the Wasteland than to serve as a fashion statement for Lady Maxson. It had been completed just before her son’s eleventh birthday, and Teagan had gifted Shaun with a modified squire’s jacket for the boy’s hard work helping with such an ambitious project. Shaun wasn’t allowed to tell anyone, but he was the only squire on the ship wearing a uniform laced with low-grade ballistic weave.

“There we go,” Teagan had said, putting the finishing touches on his work before handing it to Shaun. “Let’s make sure it looks alright, and then I’ll hand you the suit for your mother”.

“It’s too _long_ ,” Shaun muttered, seeing the lowest parts of the jacket fall almost to his knees.

“You’re still growing,” Teagan reminded him. “We’re allowed to let you have a longer robe than usual if it means we don’t have to keep replacing it every few months. I’ve even subtly increased the inside pocket size for you; I know you like to hide that little robot in your jacket”. At Teagan’s mentioning, Shaun blushed out of embarrassment. On cue, one Mr. Handy eye peeked out out from under Shaun’s shirt and gave Teagan an energetic _beep beep bwoop._

“I think it’s cute. You’re not the only squire who keeps their favorite toy on hand,” Teagan chuckled. “Others might get mad though. If you won’t follow protocol about what you can and can’t carry with you on-duty, at least hide the thing a bit better, hmm?”

“Okay,” Shaun nodded, taking Nora’s new Vault Suit into his arms as he coaxed Cod-bot to come out from under his shirt so he could open the inside pocket. Teagan noticed with surprise that Cod-bot now sported a small Mr. Handy thruster.

“He floats now,” Teagan chuckled. “Maybe I can give him a feather-duster and have him get the hard to reach places on the cabinets.

“Bwoop bwoop!”

“I still can’t find the parts to make him talk,” Shaun muttered. _Although I did find a laser gun attachment for his arm I probably shouldn’t tell Proctor Teagan about…_

“I’ll see about sifting through scrapped military robots for an extra voice box”.

#

Being on-duty as a Squire meant running errands and standing at attention for periods of time, alongside all that Shaun already did. The work kept him busy, and the end of the night found him eating a large meal and sleeping in his assigned bunk in the Squire’s barracks, at the end of the hall. Unlike the typical enlisted barracks, the Squire’s barracks weren’t quite as gender-segregated. While girls slept on one side and boys on the other, there were no hard partitions like what existed for the adults. When Squires showed signs of no longer being children, they were ushered into their new roles: Initiate, Lancer-Initiate, Scribe-Initiate. This usually happened around fourteen or fifteen, though squires as young as thirteen moved up in the ranks if they hit puberty early.

Once that happened, most of the allowances that were made for squires usually ended as well. While Shaun was assigned to sleep in this bed on the opposite side of where his mother laid her head at night, he wasn’t punished for stopping into the officer’s barracks on his recreational time. If he were very tired, Nora would coax him to take a nap in her bed --- _Elder Maxson’s bed._ Shaun had woken up once from a short nap to find Nora gone and Maxson in the room. A wave of terror had hit him before he realized that Maxson seemed not to care, not turning his head from whatever report the Elder was writing and saying merely “you’re awake”.

What else was Shaun to expect? He might not have been Arthur’s son, but he _was_ Nora’s. As such, even the Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel paid him begrudging respect. Still, a sense of worry overtook Shaun: once it was his turn to leave the Squire’s barracks and take on an adult role on the ship, there would be no more leniency. Cade remarked that it seemed Shaun had yet to show any signs of growing up. On one medical check-up, Cade had asked Nora if she knew when Shaun’s father had hit puberty. Sadly, Shaun was denied any stories of his actual father’s childhood: Nora had only met Nate once they were both grown. Added anxiety to this came in the form that Shaun had no idea when the specter of adulthood would finally arrive.

He’d been given two sandwiches to carry to the Elder’s quarters while he made his way from the Quartermastery to his parent’s quarters. Elder and Sentinel Maxson, though Sentinel Maxson’s title was ceremonial, whispered comments and an uptick in her work with the Minutemen made it clear that she was more than the typical Elder’s wife. Two sandwiches meant both of his distinguished guardians were in the room, no doubt, though Shaun was surprised to see only Nora in the room when he arrived. His mother had a map of the Commonwealth, courtesy of the Minutemen, laid out over the table. It was large and _covered_ in handwritten notes. Every Brotherhood base, Minuteman settlement, raider stronghold; if it was worth knowing about in the Commonwealth, it was delineated somewhere on this map.

His mother’s face lit up, always happy to see him. Would it still be this way when he was grown?

“Shaun,” she beamed, pulling out a chair. “You can set those here”.

“Not on the table?”

“Mess-Officer Brewer makes those sandwiches a bit _greasy_. I’ll move the sandwiches over when I have the map put away”. She made a few final notes on an area labeled _Malden_ ; “L&L sighted, Sentinel and Glory dispatched”. Noticing Shaun peeking over her shoulder, she frowned.

“Shaun, it’s rude to stare”.

“Sorry Mo—uh. Sentinel”.

“In this room, Mom is fine,” she nodded. Shaun had left the sandwiches where she’d asked them. Folding up the map and locking it (and her pens) away in a cabinet, she turned to find that he had moved the sandwiches to the table for her. He stood at attention, Brotherhood conditioning having taken hold, waiting for her to dismiss him.

“Shaun, are you busy after this?” She remembered how busy the Brotherhood kept him. “What am I asking, of course you are”.

“I have to go bring Lancer-Captain Kells lunch too. He doesn’t take his lunch for a few more minutes, though”.

“Oh, in that case, give me a moment,” she nodded, walking to Elder Maxson’s intercom and paging the bridge.

“Lancer-Captain”.

“Ma’am”. The Lancer-Captain was curt and professional, as always.

“Are you taking lunch soon?”

“Yes ma’am”.

“When my son’s done bringing your lunch, you mind if I borrow him from his workload? I need to debrief him on _the thing_ ”.

“Ah, yes,” Kells said pleasantly. “That’s quite important. He has my permission to bring the food to the door early and leave it there, Lady Maxson”.

“Thank you, Captain,” Nora said, turning off the intercom. Shaun felt a feeling of dread curl up in his stomach as Nora turned expectantly back at him. Among all the whispers that surrounded him on the Prydwen came high expectations _and_ low ones. Juxtaposed to the opinions of those who held Shaun in high regard and expected great things from him came those who wanted a “true” heir to the Maxson lineage (and saw Shaun as a distraction to that end). A baby Maxson would be exceptionally important, and Shaun knew that there would be no way he could hold Nora’s attention, Squire or not, if another child were on the way.

Was that what this was about? Once he’d mechanically finished heading to the mess hall and dropping Kells’ food off at the door, he returned to his mother with a feeling of _dread_ in his gut. The fact that Nora asked him to relax and sit down in a chair was even more worrying. She smiled at him, oblivious to his fears, and touched his hand.

“I’m going away for a few days to handle some CPG business. I’m afraid this time I won’t be able to take you with me”. A very different kind of fear overtook him now. Ever since he’d been free from the Institute, Nora had not left his side once. Any previous trips to the Castle or to Diamond City saw him accompanying her. This would be the first time since the Institute that he was left alone. He tried to put on a brave face; his mother was a busy woman, this much was undeniable. He’d overheard Nora speaking with other elites of the Brotherhood and the Minutemen, confirming that when she’d healed up enough from prior injuries to travel that she’d have to return to her job as the liaison between the Commonwealth’s many entities.

He steeled himself. As much as he didn’t want her to go, he knew she had no choice.

“You’ll be back soon, right?”

“As soon as I can, dear”.

“I thought I heard Elder Maxson say you still needed some more time. Didn’t you get hurt really badly when we left the Institute?”

“I’m doing alright, Shaun. Not quite _combat-ready_ , but I’m not heading out to fight. There’s been some interesting details on some reports that settlements send to the Minutemen. I’m going to be heading out to investigate and see if it’s something that requires the Brotherhood’s attention too, that’s all”. As she spoke, she let go of his hand to unwrap one of the two sandwiches that Shaun had brought to the table. Tearing a small portion off, she started eating a bit, pushing a bit of the sandwich over to Shaun so he could share. The boy’s appetite was through the roof lately, though his lack of growth had the mess-officers joking that they had no idea where he put it.

“Oh, so you’ll just be flying out somewhere and then flying back?” This seemed like something more in line with the Diamond City visits Shaun was used to, although if that were the case, she wouldn’t have been leaving without him.

“It’s two settlements and the Castle that I need to check in with, all together,” Nora elaborated. “Because they’re so close to each other, it’s a waste of time to take a Vertibird everywhere. I’ll be travelling on the ground; that’s why I’m not taking you”.

_It’s too dangerous_ , Shaun realized, before adding, “won’t that be dangerous for you, too?”

“I’ll have a couple of Knights escorting me,” she reassured him. “I’ll be dropping in at Bunker Hill and we’ll make the walk down to the Castle. After I’m done with the Castle, _then_ I’ll be back at the Prydwen. I’m probably going to spend a day between each settlement, so depending on what they need I could be gone between three and five days. Arthur will be here if you need anything”. The boy nodded nervously. While his step-father certainly treated him with respect, they weren’t as close as Shaun was with his mother. Arthur still intimidated Shaun too much for the boy to feel like any walls between them were truly gone.

“Best behavior,” she advised him. “It’ll only be a few days. Want anything from Bunker Hill or the Castle while I’m gone?”

“Lieutenant Danse left me an old technical manual way back when I first got there,” Shaun told her. “ _Logic Circuits for Dummies_ ,” or something like that, I think. I forgot it when I left the Castle last. Think you could get it for me?”

“Of course, Shaun,” she smiled. Having eaten only a third of the sandwich, she pushed the rest over to Shaun. “Hungry?”

“Shouldn’t you eat more than that?”

“I haven’t been particularly hungry lately. Being bored on the Prydwen with paperwork and radio broadcasts doesn’t do a lot to sate the appetite,” she said passively. Shaun tore off a little more of the sandwich and ate. While Nora attempted to give eating more of the greasy concoction another try, the door opened again as Elder Maxson walked into the room. Shaun rose up for a moment to give a quick salute only to be coaxed back into his seat by Nora (and Arthur, who raised a hand to motion the young boy to remain at rest). The Elder merely cocked an eyebrow at Nora and Shaun before closing the door.

“I take it you had him excused for a bit of time to break the news?”

“He knows. I told him”.

“You didn’t tell me when you were leaving,” Shaun reminded Nora.

“Tomorrow,” Arthur answered for her, unwrapping his own sandwich after taking his coat off of his shoulders.

“Early in the morning,” Nora added. “I’ll come find you before I go, okay Shaun?”

#

On the early morning of the 21st, Nora made her way to the Squire’s barracks to find Shaun and inform him that she was leaving soon. He was not allowed to accompany her to the flight deck, both on account of the fact that Squires were still supposed to be asleep at that early hour, and on account of heavy rain making the flight deck particularly slick. Once she’d gathered what she’d need for the trip, she made her way down to the Flight Deck, where two Brotherhood Knights in full power armor awaited her (alongside Maxson, who’d also gotten up early to see her off).

“I’ve got a bit of last-minute news for you,” Maxson advised her quickly, while the two Knights boarded the Vertibird first. “Last night, we got word from the Capital Wasteland. A few emissaries from the Capital Wasteland are on their way to the Commonwealth as we speak, on orders from the Council of Elders itself. At least one of them is in direct communication with the Western Brotherhood”.

“Sounds important, Arthur”.

“It is. They’re coming to formally welcome you into the fold, _among other things._ With our next phase of operations in the Commonwealth underway, we’re going to need greater assistance from our affiliate divisions. Of course, that means greater involvement from them, and _that_ means greater oversight from them. I know you’re a busy woman, but _do_ try and get back here as soon as possible. They’ll be here within a couple of weeks and we’ll have to make extensive preparations”.

“Understood, Elder,” she smiled, only breaking military decorum to give him one last hug before boarding the Vertibird. She took one final look at him as the aircraft took flight, disconnecting from the docking bay to soar through the air in the direction of Bunker Hill. Even as the Vertibird became a tiny blip in the distance, Arthur found himself following it with his eyes, unable to shake the feeling that something was _not_ going to go his way.

#

“Everyone knows to stay out of the way of that giant ship”. In a strange break from normalcy, the former Raiders who’d now been forced to work as scavengers in the wake of the CPG’s rise to power were _not_ talking about the Prydwen.

“Old broad’s paying _triple_ to anyone who can sneak in, though,” a second person said. “Imagine all the loot on that old boat, stuck up on that rooftop for the past two-hundred years”.

“Why the hell would an old ship like that even be _on_ the rooftop?”

“The bombs blew it there, obviously”.

“Is that why there’s giant rockets anchored on the side of it?”

“What the hell are they talking about?” Nora found herself intrigued by the conversation happening nearby, stopping to ask one of her bodyguards as they waited for Mayor Kessler to grant them an audience. The Knight in question, Benning, was particularly loyal to Nora. The fact that she’d once freed him from the brig of the Cambridge Police Station while an Institute attack nearly burned the place to the ground definitely contributed to this allegiance.

“You don’t know? The U.S.S Constitution. Some big pre-War naval ship. At some point after the war, it found itself moored on top of a building. Would be an open-and-shut case as far as how it got up there if it wasn’t mostly intact with _rockets_ sitting on both sides. Air patrols indicate there’s nothing but robots manning the ship, though they’re non-hostile as long as you don’t try and approach the ship directly”.

“As long as they’re not bothering settlers,” Nora said softly. Once Kessler finally arrived to speak with Nora, the usual talks began. The two sat and discussed trade dividends to the CPG, local defenses, issues with raiders, Minutemen patrols assigned to the settlement, and much more. When they were done, Nora headed downstairs to Bunker Hill’s underground area, checking in with Minutemen making a base there as to how their operations were doing (and giving Benning and Ingrid a well-deserved break to socialize with Minutemen manning the underground commissary while she spoke about classified information with the local “specialist”). Most of the synths slated to come through Bunker Hill had been moved to Goodneighbor and disseminated across the Commonwealth. A few stragglers still remained within the Railroad to be processed, though work was being done to route as few of them through Bunker Hill as possible, given that the Brotherhood knew Bunker Hill was “once” a Railroad stronghold.

A new development had occurred in the northeast Commonwealth. Working a case, Nick Valentine had discovered a settlement full of runaway synths in southern Maine. Built out of the ashes of Acadia National Park, the settlement was located a couple of hundred miles away from the northernmost reaches of the Commonwealth. It was unclear how so many synths had made it from the ruins of Boston to the ruins of southern Maine, especially considering that the journey often involved a boat trip, and that Maine was actually _more_ dangerous than the Commonwealth on account of a radioactive fog that bathed the area and mutated creatures into more dangerous specimens that what Boston could boast. The Railroad had made contact with Acadia and begun rerouting synths to it, pleased to find that the prejudices still remaining in the Commonwealth against the Institute did not make it as far north as Far Harbor and Acadia. Nora sincerely wished to see Far Harbor and Acadia for herself, but it would likely be sometime given that she currently needed bodyguards just to travel the Commonwealth.

When their business at Bunker Hill was done, the group made their way on foot to the now-restored University Point. An abundance of water purifiers and fishing income from the settlement had returned it to being a profitable location. With the Institute gone, the town was quickly returning to its former glory. The plan would be to stay the night and then negotiate increased cuts of trade to Diamond City by University Point in the morning. The sound of gunfire and railway rifles interrupted these plans, as the group crossed a bridge leading away from Bunker Hill only to find themselves in view of a firefight between an unaffiliated caravan and several unidentified robots.

The _end_ of the firefight. Before the group could react and determine whether to fight or flee, the robots had already finished off the last of the caravan and begun firing upon the Brotherhood soldiers. Knights Benning and Gray scarcely had time to react before a modified Sentry Bot unit began firing missiles at the group, breaking Gray’s power armor frame and forcing her to evacuate her power armor. With Benning frantically firing at the group, the group of three began to look for a place to take fire. As a group of faster robots closed in and overpowered Knight Gray, Benning found himself frantically grabbing Nora and making a run for some of the buildings still intact along the Boston coastline. The robots were closing in behind them, with at least two charging up Assaultron eye beams that would be firing off in just a moment. Practically throwing Nora forward as hard as he could, Benning turned back around and aimed his laser rifle at the incoming robots.

“Benning!”

“ _Run!_ ”

“Bu—” The sound of two eye lasers firing off in quick succession ended the conversation, with Nora watching in horror as Benning took both laser shots to the torso and still stood tall, firing off to defend her. It had already been pre-determined by the Brotherhood that if things went wrong, Nora’s survival was paramount to the others. Feeling the sting of an injury to the arm that Benning had been holding when he’d thrown her, she ducked into the doorway of a nearby building to make her escape. The rotted wooden stairs under her foot giving way gave her a rude awakening as she felt a _thud_ and the world went black.

#

“Goddamn it all”. Her Pip-Boy had taken heavy damage when she’d fallen through the stairs and into whatever room she was in now. Her shoulder was almost definitely dislocated. More importantly, the lack of lighting from her now-broken Pip-Boy made it hard to determine where she’d landed and if there were any other problems she needed to know about. Wherever she was, the robots had not managed to follow. Sitting in the darkness, she could hear what sounded like a Protectron’s footsteps outside. After a few minutes, she had the determination that whatever robot was outside, it was the only one still waiting for her. Doing her best to find a door handle and open it slowly with her uninjured arm, she saw a bit of light come through from the next room. Taking advantage of it to prepare the Deliverer for a firefight, she snuck out quietly from the small room she’d been trapped in to confront the Protectron waiting outside. To her surprise, she found the Protectron to be as heavily modified as the rest of the robots that had attacked her and her bodyguards. One thing she _didn’t_ remember was the cyan-colored bot in front of her participating in the attack. It reappeared in her memories of the event, firing off pot-shots from a modified laser arm at the robots rather than the caravan or Brotherhood. The cyan bot was loaded with knapsacks and satchels of goods, revealing that it had been with the caravan rather than against it.

“Please,” a robotic voice pleaded, as Nora aimed the gun cautiously. “Ma’am, you’re injured and require medical attention. I followed you here because we faced a common threat and you were the sole human whose demise could not be confirmed”.

_So Benning and Gray are dead_ , Nora confirmed to herself sadly as the robot explained itself.

“My name is Ada. Thanks to your timing, my diagnostics show only superficial damage. I wish I could say the same for my late friends”.

“Those _things_ attacked both our groups. Ada, it’s my job to protect settlements in the Commonwealth from threats like that. Was there some kind of reason that you were being attacked by those things?”

“I’ve been heavily modified, but at my core I am an Assaultron. This was the third time my caravan was attacked by robots such as those. They roam the Commonwealth and claim to be restoring order. We’ve seen them fighting Raiders, but they’ve also killed many innocents”.

“Do you know anything else about them, Ada?”

“They’re controlled by an unknown entity. Designation: the Mechanist”.


	2. Terror in Boston

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of the last chapter bring up frustrations on where the world will go from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was a couple weeks wait for one chapter. I appreciate everyone's patience. I spent the last few weeks moving apartments and getting re-adjusted to working at the office again.
> 
> Also, I dipped my foot into Fallout 76 yesterday for the first time. Nothing much; don't have much leisure time these days, but I made a character who looks like Nora after the Courser fight in Everything After....which was right about the time a certain Elder started to show interest in her.
> 
> Anyway, the story will be a slow burn, much like its predecessor....but there's going to be scenes sometime this century that come out that I'm REALLY hoping to write and show off. Of course, we have to get to that point first....so let the story continue!

## TERROR IN BOSTON

**Choleric: easily moved to often unreasonable or excessive anger.**

* * *

“ _Elder Arthur Maxson, will you take this woman to be your wife, and will you pledge yourself to her in all duty and service, in all faith and tenderness, to live with her, to cherish her, and to carry her burdens as your own according to the ordinance of the Creator in the bond of marriage, as long as you both shall live?”_

**I do.**

Those words had been ringing through his mind the last two days. Watching the Vertibird carry her to Bunker Hill, he’d _known_ something was going to happen. When Knights Benning and Gray failed to check in from University Point on the night of the 21st, Arthur had stayed up all night waiting for word of what had become of the group.

The horrifying discovery in the early hours of the 22nd, that both Knights had been killed in some kind of _rogue robot_ attack en route to their next stop, that a group of caravanners were also dead, and that Nora was nowhere to be found, had cemented his worries. Brotherhood patrols had been mobilized to find the Elder’s missing wife, but all come up empty-handed. The damnable robots were still operating in the area, firing upon any human that came too close. Their non-stop “patrols” in the area and the unfortunate rains over the last few days washed away any tracks that might have indicated where Nora could have gone. The Commonwealth Minutemen had been contacted to assist with the search efforts, although their involvement would have to wait until a large, modified Sentry Bot had been dealt with. The fact that said Sentry Bot possessed particularly strong anti-aircraft capabilities via its missile launchers meant that both ground forces and multiple Vertibirds would have to be dispatched. This meant extra time spent mobilizing the necessary units. This in turn limited the window of precious hours in which Nora could reasonably be assumed to be alive. Miracles had happened before; Paladin Brandis had been found alive in the northern Commonwealth three years after going missing in action. Still, the average time that a soldier without power armor could be assumed alive within the Commonwealth was less than a week. With Benning and Gray dead, Nora’s window was both smaller and rapidly expiring. No one wanted to admit that, least of all Arthur, and yet it was the reality.

A distress signal in the early morning of the 23rd finally set the Elder at ease, with Nora being discovered alive hiding in the basement of a Wattz Consumer Electronics building. The Sentry Bot patrolling the area had made it almost impossible for her to leave, and damage to her Pip-Boy had caused a delay in her ability to relay a distress signal that the Brotherhood or CPG could detect. Only after the formidable combat robot had been dealt with could a Brotherhood patrol finally locate Nora and assist her back to the Prydwen, safe and sound. Arthur was relieved to find her largely unharmed, save one injured shoulder which had been sloppily reset by the non-hostile robot accompanying his wife. After Cade had thoroughly reassured him that Nora would be alright, Arthur found himself back in his quarters, reviewing intelligence by the surviving Brotherhood assault force and Minutemen regarding the robots appearing throughout the Commonwealth. The Minutemen were reporting more of the robots with each passing day. Oftentimes, the robots came in large hunting parties that mostly consisted of modified Assaultrons and Sentry Bots. Less often, a modified Protectron or two would be included in a group. These, and the rare Eyebot obnoxiously looping a pre-recorded message, would usually be the easiest for the people of the Commonwealth to subdue without any professionals getting involved. One such Eyebot had been eliminated during the Brotherhood’s search for Nora, and the pre-recorded message its tape drive contained was now sitting in Quinlan’s office for review.

All anyone knew so far was that the robots were sent by someone calling themselves _the Mechanist_. When Nora had been found, a modified Assaultron had been found with her. The blue robot called itself Ada and reported that it had been part of the caravan eliminated near where Nora was found. Cade had reported that Nora confirmed this claim, as did findings from the assault team that the caravan contained more robots, all beyond repair, whose modifications resembled Ada’s more than anything found on the Mechanist’s forces.

The wall intercom in his room went off, interrupting his thoughts with a voice from the bridge.

“Sir,” a female officer’s voice said. “General Preston Garvey’s Vertibird is on its final approach to the Prydwen”. Tossing his coat back on and walking to the intercom, the Elder informed his officers he’d be down in just a few minutes.

#

It was hard to envision Preston Garvey as a trapped militia man in the Museum of Freedom, protecting a few weakened settlers from a band of raiders. Less than one year after his fateful meeting with Nora Mulyer, the Minutemen commanded the most respect they’d seen in decades. _General Garvey_ stood at the helm of it all, with Nora having returned the role that Preston had once offered to her. It was almost _funny_ to Preston to consider that the title of “General of the Minutemen” had been empty when he’d first offered it to her.

Nora had a much different job now that suited her far better. The chief diplomat between the Minutemen, the Brotherhood, and the Railroad had no business being at the helm of one singular faction. Instead, she capitalized upon the mutual respect the rest of the Commonwealth had for her to smooth out the many disputes that arose after the formation of the CPG. When a band of raiders threatened a settlement, one called the Minutemen. When a runaway synth needed to be discretely saved from a lynch mob, one called the Railroad, and when a hive of feral ghouls or super mutants was found threatening a trade route, one called the Brotherhood.

When unamicable settlements bickered with each other over trade privileges, or when the operations of one faction threatened to disrupt the other, one instead called Nora. Whether the sway over all parties involved came from Nora’s role as the former General, as Sentinel Maxson, or as the Negotiator, there was no denying she _had_ enough sway to settle even the most dangerous diplomatic struggles with a few well-placed words and a few whispers in the right ears. Her clout only became more tangible following the news that she’d helped spearhead the operation against the Institute, and that she’d married one of the most powerful men on the entire Eastern seaboard. Even travelers from the Capital Wasteland had heard of her, and Preston was surprised to find that oftentimes it _wasn’t_ because she was Lady Maxson now.

Speaking of which…

The Brotherhood were very careful to have two deck scribes, rather than one, waiting for Preston as his Vertibird docked with the Prydwen’s port. The Vertibird named _Ignis_ had been re-designated by the Mintuemen as _Eagle_ following its change in ownership. It had been offered up to the Castle following recent upgrades that had been made there, to further facilitate co-operation between the Minutemen and the Brotherhood. As of now, it was the sole Vertibird that had been passed over from one faction to the other. Preston wondered for a moment if the extra scribes on the flight deck were meant to patronize him before remembering that it was _exceptionally_ wet outside ---- disembarking the aircraft to board the Prydwen would be more difficult than normal. Looking out at the other end of the flight deck, he could see Elder Maxson arriving on the flight deck and being a bit more careful, however subtly, when approaching Preston. Once Preston had disembarked his Vertibird and Maxson had reached a respectable proximity to the General, they both gave each other a curt nod before Preston jumped straight to the important question.

“How is she?”

#

Somerville Place had been both a small settlement and one which wasn’t well-located from a strategic standpoint. Resting at the edge of the Glowing Sea, the farm’s owner insisted on remaining there based on the fact that his own father had built the farm from the ground up. It was true that the settlement’s location made it an unlikely target for raiders, but the same radiation that chased away raiders also made it a difficult settlement to recruit a workforce for. In the end, the population of Somerville Place had remained at three: Felix Somerville and his two children.

The robots had killed all of them. An Eyebot at the location had remained to spout the Mechanist’s message of peace and salvation, even as the Minutemen gasped in horror at the crows picking away at carrion that had once been _children_. Panic was quickly travelling through the Commonwealth as more reports of robotic attacks emanated from Diamond City Radio and Radio Freedom. The Castle’s radio operator had been inundated with requests for aid. As reluctant as Preston was to call upon outside help from the Brotherhood, it was increasingly apparent that there was no other way around the threat.

It wasn’t as though the Brotherhood were totally disagreeable. Their anti-ghoul and anti-synth rhetoric disturbed the Minutemen, but they’d been easier to deal with philosophically since their leadership had been softened by a certain Vault Dweller. The reason behind Preston’s visit to the Prydwen had been to meet with the Brotherhood’s senior leadership and discuss their contributions in keeping the citizens of the Commonwealth safe. It almost felt _good_ to be on the reverse of things: with peace restored in the Commonwealth, until now the discussions had been how the Commonwealth could help the Prydwen. When new plans had been cemented between the Minutemen and the Brotherhood, Preston took a moment to excuse himself and follow Nora to ask how she’d been doing since the attack. He quickly found that he wasn’t the only one who’d followed her to an isolated window on the Prydwen’s command deck.

“Arthur, you wouldn’t ask any other soldier to halt a mission in the face of a dangerous enemy. Why would you expect it from me?”

“You’re _not_ any other soldier, Nora. You’re my wife and I’ll be damned if I just let those monstrosities threaten you again”.

“The number of Minutemen and Brotherhood patrols on the ground is about to double. The number of aerial patrols is tripling. We’re going to have all hands-on-deck to fight those robots and find the Mechanist. This is going to take a high level of co-ordination and resources for all parties involved, Arthur. I need to finish what I started and get back to the other two settlements. Hell, I probably need to go to _more_ of them now”.

“We can send other representatives. Your arm is still healing”.

“I don’t talk with my arms”.

“Nora,” Arthur growled, “this has been a stressful few days already. We _cannot_ afford to have another mishap with your safety”.

“You can’t afford to not send her either,” Preston said, surprising both Arthur and Nora with his presence.

“It’s impolite to eavesdrop,” Arthur muttered.

“A little, though it wasn’t intentional. I walked over here to ask how you were holding up,” Preston explained, his eyes flashing on Nora for a moment.

“Talk some sense into my wife,” Arthur Maxson droned. “She can’t possibly be the only person that your Minutemen will answer too”.

“No, but we’ll need more than the usual Minutemen at play, and she’s the only one around that has that kind of negotiating power”.

“If need be, I’m sure you and I could help smooth out a greater agreement, General Garvey”.

“I wouldn’t trust that most Brotherhood soldiers wouldn’t have trouble when it came to working with _certain_ elements of society,” Preston said, taking on an inflection that Arthur quickly understood to mean the Railroad. The Minuteman General shrugged for a moment before continuing, “now I could think of one other man you had who might have come close to commanding that level of respect if he were still around, but—”

“I don’t want to know about Danse,” Arthur said curtly, “or any of the less savory elements our agreement has me begrudgingly allowing to exist in the Commonwealth”.

“And that same attitude you and most of the Brotherhood have are why your wife needs to be the one to do the negotiating,” Preston deadpanned. With Nora offering only a glance at Arthur, the young Elder found himself trapped at an impasse. He felt his teeth bite down softly against his inner cheek for a moment in frustration before finally relenting. Even with the air of composure that he maintained, Nora could practically feel him _seething_.

“You will go _nowhere_ without an escort”.

“Just like before?” Nora reminded him.

“No. Last time I had Knights assigned to you. This time, you’re going with Paladins. You’re _also_ limited to travel by Vertibird. I’m not taking a single chance on this again”.


End file.
